IGCC Welcomes New Cohort of Fellows
In September, the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) welcomed a new cohort of Dissertation Fellows for the 2026–27 academic year, and two new Postdoctoral Fellows in Technology and International Security for two-year terms.
The University of California Dissertation Fellowship was established in 1984, and supports UC doctoral students whose research addresses pressing global security challenges and advances IGCC’s mission and core themes. Fellows receive funding and mentorship to support their dissertation research and professional development. IGCC has supported nearly 600 fellows since 1991 with more than $6.6 million in funding.
The Postdoctoral Fellowship in Technology and International Security supports postdoctoral fellows whose research generates insights into the relationship between technology, national security, and the global security environment. The program is supported by IGCC and the Center for Global Security Research at the Livermore National Laboratory and the National Security and International Studies Office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Meet the 2026–27 Dissertation Fellows:
Callista Chim, UC San Diego
Callista is PhD candidate in political science and international relations. Her research examines political economy, energy politics, and development, with a focus on how large-scale energy infrastructure and public investment reshape domestic institutions and international cooperation.
Rudra Guha Biswas, UC Riverside
Rudra is a PhD candidate in political science. His research examines how geoeconomic competition between the great powers affects multinational corporations and states caught in between competing powers.
Jungjae Hong, UC Santa Barbara
Jungjae is a PhD candidate in political science. His research focuses on international security, particularly nuclear weapons, alliance politics, and multilateral institutions.
Wai Ka Kot, UC Davis
Wai is a PhD candidate in anthropology. Her research examines how digital technologies, migration, and political transformation reshape citizenship, governance, and everyday experiences of the state in Nepal.
Dinah Lawan, UC Berkeley
Dinah is a PhD candidate in political science. Her research sits at the intersection of political violence, civilian agency, and local governance in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Theodore Naff, UC Los Angeles
Theodore is a PhD candidate in economics. His research addresses contemporary economic statecraft: how policymakers should respond to China’s financing of global trade infrastructure, what the dollar’s dominance means for the future of currency blocs, and how government should insure workers against disruptions from global integration.
Sweta Rijal, UC Irvine
Sweta is a PhD candidate in political science. Her research examines the international political economy of artificial intelligence, global inequality, and international organizations.
Joelle Rosenberg, UC Los Angeles
Joelle is a PhD candidate in sociology. Her research examines how state organization shapes patterns of political violence under authoritarian rule.
Gilad Wenig, UC Los Angeles
Gilad is a PhD candidate in sociology. His research examines how military and political power are constructed, legitimized, and exercised in contexts of empire, war, revolution, and coups.
Nicholas Yoder, UC Davis
Nicholas is a PhD candidate in Latin American history. His areas of expertise include the Cold War in Latin America, with a particular interest in human rights and democratic movements.
Meet the New Postdoctoral Fellows:
Beenish Pervaiz
Beenish is a Postdoctoral Fellow based in Washington, D.C. Her research focuses on nuclear deterrence and strategy, nonproliferation policy, and the drivers of nuclear force expansion in regional settings, including South Asia. She examines how third-party relationships and alliance politics shape nuclear force structure and trajectories of vertical proliferation. During the fellowship she will complete data collection and prepare the manuscript for her book project.
Cheyenne Black
Cheyenne is a Postdoctoral Fellow based in Washington, D.C. She studies how the United States governs space and how actors, coalitions, and institutions set national priorities as the domain becomes more commercial and contested. During the fellowship she will prepare journal articles from her dissertation and begin a related project on institutional change in defense governance.
Continuing postdoctoral fellows include Dominic Brennan, Eunji Emily Kim, Jung Jae Kwon, and Adi Rao.
Learn more about the UC Dissertation Fellowship | Postdoctoral Fellowship in International Security and Technology
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